Voot Kids launches first marketing campaign

By composing a special anthem for kids, the ad campaign highlights how negotiation is key while trying to convince children for anything

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | September 30, 2016

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With close to 3.5 million active monthly users on Voot Kids, Viacom 18 is now launching a marketing campaign for its young consumers. The earlier traction on the kids section of the OTT platform was generated organically in last four months of the launch, said Gaurav Gandhi, COO, Viacom18 Digital Ventures.

A special anthem for Voot Kids â€śBachche Hum Goody Goody Banenge, Voot Kids Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karenge!â€ť has been launched by the channel, which is running as the background score on the television commercials. A high-frequency campaign rolls out across all major kids channels and digital platforms on September 30.

With 1,750 hours of content, 7000+ videos and 100+ characters, Voot Kids already commands about 15 per cent of the watch time on Voot, sporting a healthy 35 minutes of time spent per viewer. Gandhi said, â€śRight at launch, we built the largest repository of premium kidsâ€™ content in the digital space in India. At 15 per cent share of the overall traffic, Voot Kids is a significant contributor to Vootâ€™s growth. We feel that this segment is only set to grow, both in size and influence, and we want to be the default digital platform of choice for kidsâ€™ entertainment. Our endeavour is to build a parent-approved favourite brand for kids, and we will continue to develop exciting campaigns and dial up engagement with this community even further.â€ť

To grab more eyeballs, the network will soon be launching the tablet version of the video streaming app. It should be on the floor within 7-10 days.

Since its launch in May 2016, Voot has garnered more than 10 million app downloads, over 15 million monthly active users across mobile and web, with viewers spending about 40 minutes on an average per day.

Akash Banerji

The marketing campaign launched by the network is based on the fact that negotiations are at the core of anything that we offer to the kids. â€śThey are the masters of negotiations. Kids have obsession of characters and repeat value is very high for the kidsâ€™ content. The top 10 characters on Voot Kids have been included in the anthem -- Doraemon, Shiva, Chhota Bheem, Ben10, Motu Patlu, Pokemon, Peppa Pig, Sponge Bob, Kungfu Panda and Dora are some of them,â€ť said Akash Banerji, Head of Marketing and Partnerships, Voot, Ex-Marketing Head, Hotstar, ?Marketing Head, Viacom 18 Digital Ventures.

This campaign is an extension of the Voot launch campaign -- Wanting Wanting. There will be one more leg of the campaign which will target the parents with the functional benefits like setting up of pin. â€śThis is the first one for Voot Kids and we have focused on striking the emotional chord first.â€ť

30 per cent of Voot Kidsâ€™ consumption takes place for education-based videos (one-five pre-schoolers), while 70 per cent is for the character-based videos (5-12 elder kids). The brands are also taking note of the specialised kidsâ€™ platform with over 10 advertisers already on Voot Kids, while about 45 are on Voot. More than half-a-million parents are already using the pin function on Voot kids, which enables the parent to block the kid from moving into the other parts of Voot. â€śIt is also interesting to know that the devices with pin function have been used much more for video viewing on kids than those without pin activations,â€ť said Gandhi.

Another aspect of kids content consumption that was highlighted by Gandhi was how the primetime for kids on TV was 4-6 pm, but on Voot Kids, it is at 9 pm. Sundays have 40-50 per cent more viewership.

Gaurav Gandhi

Why such specialisation for kids when Voot has many other genres of content like Hindi general entertainment, movies, English content and much more? Gandhi explained how kids were a huge priority for the network. â€śWe understand how kids are important to us and hence we cater to their need of all characters at one place. Kids donâ€™t understand the differentiation of channel or time slots and hence Voot Kids is for them. For us, there are three key things on Voot -- Reality shows, Voot Kids and Voot Originals,â€ť said Gandhi.

As a part of the marketing campaign, the parents have been asked to upload videos of their kids singing the Voot Anthem on social media. â€śWe have understood through studies how parents love to highlight and promote the strengths and good qualities of their kids,â€ť said Banerji.

As for Voot, the numbers are pretty interesting as 1,100 cities are watching Voot though about 60 per cent of viewership is from the big 40-50 cities. While the general male-female skew of internet video watching is 80-20, for Voot, itâ€™s 57-43.

Voot indicates the dynamics of single TV households in India and how itâ€™s creating unique opportunities. Advertisers too are lapping up this opportunity on Voot Kids as they seek to connect and engage with this mobile-first generation -- the influencers of today and decision makers of tomorrow.